The present invention relates to an athletic swing practice apparatus and especially to a swing training device which applys a predetermined force between the arms during a swing while simultaneously providing a predetermined force to the upper body of an athlete.
In the past, it has been common to provide a great variety of swing practice systems including golf swing systems which include various types of straps for strapping the arm portions of the body to force a body in a predetermined manner during a practice swing of a golf club. Other systems strap the wrist to force the wrist to maintain certain positions during a practice swing while yet other systems guide the golf club and sometimes provide for a belt having flexible waist support cords as shown in my prior Bellagamba et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,881. It has also been common in the past to provide various systems for strapping the arms or legs together to maintain them is a predetermined position during the performance of practice swings or other types of training. Typical of these prior art devices may be seen in the Promen U.S. Pat. No. 2,450,162, in which a pair of leather straps are buckled around a golfer's arms and are connected together with a metal chain and clip and the Brooks U.S. Pat. No. 4,890,841 for a golf swing aid which encircles the shoulders with an elastic band to provide directed force for the swing. In the Norman et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,239,228 a golf swing training device has a pair of Y-shaped straps having VELCRO formed thereon so that each Y-shaped strap can be strapped around one arm of a golfer and the two strapped arms connected together by VELCRO fastener straps extending from the arms. In the Posner U.S. Pat. No. 3,324,851, an arm restraining device straps to each arm and extends across the front of a person's body while the Bell U.S. Pat. No. 4,046,143, is a heart patient aid which also has arm straps connected by a connecting link. The Davis U.S. Pat. No. 1,655,092, has a golf swing corrector having a pair of arm straps connected by an interconnecting strap across the front of the golfer. The Okerlin U.S. Pat. No. 4,377,284, is a basketball training device which straps the arms together. The Richmon U.S. Pat. No. 4,895,373, straps a golfer's body with a loop around one arm for controlling the practice swing. The Brady U.S. Pat. No. 3,680,869, is a golf training device connecting a leg strap through a flexible cord to an arm strap. The Corder, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 4,892,317, has a golf club swing training device which straps one arm and one chest strap together with a short VELCRO strap.
The present invention utilizes arm straps as shown in some of the prior patents except the straps are connected across the back with an adjustable resilient connecting strap to apply predetermined force to the movement of the arms during a practice swing while simultaneously providing elastic cords extending from the arm straps to fixed poles to control the movement of the upper body simultaneously with the force applied to the movement of the arms to thereby provide dual forces applied to the correction of both the upper body and arm movement of a golfer or athlete during a practice swing.